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To Boil Potatoes

This dish is boiled potatoes seasoned with salt, butter, cream, and pepper.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓

To Boil Potatoes

Ingredients

Directions

Prepare and boil

  1. Place potatoes in a saucepan and cover with water.

  2. Add a pinch of coarse sea salt and set on low heat.

  3. If boiling rapidly, reduce heat to prevent skin from cracking.

  4. For mashed potatoes, peel before boiling.

  5. For young potatoes, scrape and boil them.

Finish

  1. Once cooked, mash with butter, cream, and a little salt.

  2. After cooking, drain water and dress with cream, butter, pepper, and salt.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

  2. Potato + peppertop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together8,305 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2-isopropyl-3-methoxypyrazine (earthy, pea).

  3. Potato + buttertop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,456 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

  4. Potato + creamtop 17% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together2,481 recipes

    Shared aroma: 1-octen-3-one (mushroom, metallic).

  5. Butter + peppertop 21% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together85,593 recipes

    Shared aroma: trans-2-nonenal (cardboard, fatty).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Potatoes
Their starch gives the cooked flesh its soft, fluffy or creamy texture.
Butter
Adds fat that enriches flavor and makes the mash smooth and glossy.
Cream
Adds moisture and richness, helping mashed potatoes become smooth and creamy.

The step that matters

Keep the boil gentle. A rapid, violent boil can split the skins and cook the outside faster than the centre. A low simmer cooks the potatoes evenly and keeps them intact.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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